”Can’t think of many design merchandising pros who could kindle any sympathy for this act of ego self D… very unhappy on +90k a year!
NG
Desight
Marks & Spencer all at sea as Kate Bostock is shoved overboard
By Harry Wallop | Telegraph – 2 hours 0 minutes ago
Companies:
Reuters – REFILE – CORRECTING YEAR TO 2012 A woman walks out of the Marble Arch branch of Marks and Spencer in central London June 8, 2012. British retailer Marks & Spencer Plc plans to launch an in-store …more
What do you do when you are captain of the ship and you are heading for the rocks? Push a man overboard and hope the hullabaloo distracts all the passengers from the crunching sound when the ship runs aground.
Marc Bolland, under increasing pressure for the poor performance of Marks & Spencer’s clothing business, has persuaded Kate Bostock, head of general merchandise, to leave the business.
M&S (LSE: MKS.L – news) says it is “by mutual consent”, but Bostock has no other job to go to. She has spent much of the past two years trying to use the pages of a certain newspaper to bid up her salary. Monthly rumours would be printed that she was off to Asos.com, that she was off to New Look, that she was very unhappy. Ever since she missed out on the top job to Mr Bolland two years ago she has struggled to be enthusiastic at all the company’s public meetings.
All of this served to highlight how she was failing to crack the most difficult nut of them all: return M&S to the days when nearly every woman in the country had some of its clothes not just in their wardbrobes, but also in their affections.
Will her departure be enough to turn the business around?
Nick Garrett 